Timothy Douglas HarfordOBE (born 27 September 1973) is an English economic journalist who lives in
Oxford.[5]
Harford is the author of four economics books[4][6][7][8] and writes his long-running Financial Times column, "
The Undercover Economist", syndicated in
Slate magazine, which explores the economic ideas behind everyday experiences. His column in the Financial Times, "Since You Asked", ran between 2011 and 2014 and offered a
sceptical look at the news of the week.[9]
Since October 2007 Harford has presented the
BBC Radio 4 programme More or Less. The series segments are also available as podcasts. Subsequently Harford launched his own podcast on the podcast production network
Pushkin Industries, called
Cautionary Tales.[10][11]
He lives in Oxford with his wife Fran Monks, a photographer, and their three children.[13]
Career
Harford joined the Financial Times in 2003 on a fellowship in commemoration of business columnist Peter Martin. He continued to write his financial column after joining
International Finance Corporation in 2004, and he rejoined the Financial Times as economics lead writer in April 2006. He is also a member of the newspaper's editorial board.
In August 2007, he presented a television series on the
BBC, Trust Me, I'm an Economist.[16] In October 2007, Harford replaced
Andrew Dilnot on the BBC Radio 4 series More or Less. From November 2016, he presented an economic history documentary radio and podcast series 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy. Since November 2019, he has been presenting the podcast series Cautionary Tales. On 13 November 2020 he started a new podcast series on
COVID-19 Vaccination called How to Vaccinate the World.[17]
Harford is managed by the agency Knight Ayton.[13]
Awards
More or Less won the
Royal Statistical Society's 2010 award for statistical excellence in broadcast journalism.[18] In 2017 Harford was made an Honorary Fellow of the society.[19]
More or Less won
Mensa's award for promoting intelligence in public life.[20]
Harford was awarded the
Bastiat Prize for economic journalism in 2007 (shared with
Jamie Whyte).[21] In 2010 he again drew with Whyte, in second place.
Dear Undercover Economist: Priceless Advice on Money, Work, Sex, Kids, and Life's Other Challenges (2009). New York, Random House. 2009.
ISBN978-0-8129-8010-3
Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure (2011). New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
ISBN978-0-374-10096-4
The Undercover Economist Strikes Back: How to Run – or Ruin – an Economy (2014). Penguin Riverhead Books (US).
ISBN978-1594631405
Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives (2016). Riverhead Books.
ISBN978-1594634796